Chris Christie: 'I am embarrassed'

An “embarrassed and humiliated” Chris Christie apologized Thursday to a long cast of characters and fired a top aide for lying to him about her involvement with an apparent act of political retribution that sparked dangerous traffic jams around the New Jersey city of Fort Lee.

“It is heartbreaking to me that I wasn’t told the truth,” the New Jersey governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate told reporters at a 107-minute news conference in Trenton. “I’m a very loyal guy, and I expect loyalty in return, and lying to me is not an exhibition of loyalty.”

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A lesson in crisis management

Flashback: Christie responds to GW Bridge questions

“I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. There is no doubt in my mind that the conduct they exhibited is completely unacceptable,” he added. “It showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and the people that were trusted to serve.”

Christie announced he had immediately fired Bridget Kelly, a deputy chief of staff in his office who sent an email that it was “time for traffic problems in Fort Lee” at a time when Christie’s campaign was seeking an endorsement from the Democratic mayor of the city. Christie said Kelly had failed to come forward to explain earlier when he challenged his staff say if they had knowledge of the lane closures.

“She was not given the opportunity to explain why she lied,” Christie said.

The governor also said he was essentially dismissing a close adviser, Bill Stepien, who had managed his campaign and who was on track to take over the New Jersey state Republican Party and to be an adviser to the Republican Governors Association, which Christie currently chairs. Stepien had also told Christie he knew nothing about the issue, but emails disclosed Wednesday showed him involved in communications mocking the citizens of Fort Lee over the traffic caused by the closures after it happened.

Later in the day, Christie traveled to Fort Lee to personally apologize to the mayor, Mark Sokolich. The mayor, who initially said Christie should stay away for now, met with the governor and told reporters afterward that he had accepted the apology.

Christie, whose brusque personality has earned him admirers as well as detractors among both Republicans and Democrats, described himself during his news conference earlier Thursday as being in the process of soul-searching, expressed frustration and said he was outraged that his staff hadn’t been honest with him.

But the governor, whose presidential prospects appeared to have dimmed significantly as a result of the scandal, brushed off criticisms of his personality. “I am not a bully,” he said.

Christie’s marathon news conference did little to clarify how the scandal transpired, and he allowed for the possibility that there will be more revelations because of the dishonesty of the aides involved. Since he hadn’t been aware of the initial problems, he said it’s possible there will be more information that emerges.

A spokeswoman for the office of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey confirmed Thursday that it was looking at the facts surrounding the lane closures to determine if a federal investigation was warranted. The matter was referred to the U.S. attorney by the inspector general for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that controls the bridge.

Two of three local access lanes from Fort Lee heading onto the busy George Washington Bridge were suddenly closed starting Sept. 9, a shutdown that lasted four days, causing massive traffic jams, delaying emergency vehicles and slowing down buses taking children to school.

Officials from Fort Lee said they couldn’t get answers as to why the lanes were closed, though in the days afterward Port Authority officials said it was part of a traffic study. Democrats soon began alleging that the shutdown was payback against Sokolich, a Democrat who had declined to join other members of his party in endorsing the Republican governor for reelection.

Christie held forth for nearly two hours, insisting time and again he was keeping no cards close to the vest.

“I have absolutely nothing to hide,” he told reporters. No, he didn’t plan to step down — a “crazy” question, he said. And he said he kept his distance from the dismissed aides so he wouldn’t be accused of witness tampering with people who will ultimately be called to testify in one of the investigations into the lane closures.